We aren’t talking about writing the Great American Novel, but rather how to draw on the powerful aspects of storytelling to explain our work and our ideas so we connect emotionally with any audience.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore this important aspect of success, looking at it helps us at interviews, in meetings and when working with any other group. Storytelling can work in any situation where we talk about our work.

Among the topics they cover in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast are:

Defining how storytelling fits into explaining ourselves

Making an idea “sticky”

How widely this approach can be used

The value of storytelling in a meeting as simple as a daily or weekly status meeting

The right preparation for storytelling to succeed

Understanding our audience’s needs

Why less is more in some cases and why more can be valuable at other times

Self-editing our stories to meet specific needs

Why writing the story out in advance or developing great themes and plot lines won’t work

Building the story from two or three key elements or takeaway you want the audience to learn from your story

Planting words to make things sticky

Sticky versus stinky

How to prepare for an interview to ensure you’re sticky

Making experiences become sticky through storytelling

Developing an emotional connection

Real examples of how storytelling can make us look better to employers and others

How anecdotes and stories about what you do in a job can help others understand the value you can bring to their organization

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explain how to become more effective as a networker, what soft skills you should be applying and how you can overcome your fears and reluctance to make connections that can enhance your career.

LinkedIn.com in 2016 found that 85% of all jobs come from networking. Therefore, our ability to be successful at formal and informal networking can play a huge role in our career enhancement and opportunities.

Among the topics they discuss are:

How to approach networking

Networking for introverts or reluctant networkers

Negotiating your way through formal networking events

Ways to win at informal networking events

Networking as a means of building trust, which can may lead to business

What your network can do for you and others in your network

How networking can help you better understand your customers

Taking advantage of opportunities that come through networking

Getting ready to be successful at networking

The soft skills that underpin successful networking

Why “I can help you” won’t work

The wingman approach to networking

Six things help you to gain trust in seconds

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Next week

We will dig deeper into becoming a Networking Ninja by playing through some typical scenarios that face people who are networking like how to end a discussion without upsetting anyone.

This is the last week of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy and this week we look at a specific job posting and talk about how the employer could have better integrated soft skills into the job posting, valuable information for employers and job seekers.

In this week’s episode, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss various aspects of integrating soft skills into a job announcement.

Among the topics they discuss are:

Getting soft skills into the competencies and qualifications an employee needs

How to combine soft skills into one bullet in an employment announcement

Taking what’s in the job add and adding a story about your soft skills

Talking about a situation that covers lots of soft skills in the cover letter

Why a story is worth a thousand promises of what we can do

Using an employment advertisement to set good candidates up to succeed

How to show growth, not experience, at a job

How applicants can read between the lines of a job posting

Being a rock versus a rock star

Using soft skills to develop the fiber of your organization

Next week

We start the first of two weeks of how to become a Networking Ninja. Networking is an important career skill, encompassing many soft skills. We’ll break it down and give you some real good hints for networking effectively, even if you are an introvert.

It’s Week 4 of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, where we will be looking at how to incorporate soft skills into a job interview. Armed with this ability, you will zoom to the top of every job search list.

In Episode 29 of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham continue to put soft skills to work for you in your quest to obtain a better job or a promotion. This week, we’re going to talk through how to use soft skills as an interviewee.

Among the topics covered:

Soft skills are best conveyed in storytelling, which is a soft skill.

Rather than reciting facts, give context.

Show passion, show initiative, show you did more than what was required.

Why you want to be sticky to the interviewer

How long an anecdote or story should be

Dealing with open-ended questions

Highlighting your transferrable skills

How you want to be remembered by the employer or search committee

How to take control of the interview and make sure you get to explain your soft skills

Dealing with behavioral questions

What you need to do in advance to be ready to integrate soft skills into an interview

Why you should take EVERY interview offered

Next week

Next week we will be starting the last part of our Six Weeks of Soft Skills Strategy. For the next two weeks, we will look at the soft skills and interviewing from the employer’s perspective. Not only will this help people looking to hire, but potential interviewees will obtain even more insights into how to integrate soft skills into their job search. Coming up next week on the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Soft skills can hold important role in getting noticed in a job search, especially when integrated into your cover letter and resume. We’ll discuss how to get that notice by beefing up your soft skills in these materials.

As employers and organizations look more at soft skills, applicants need to articulate their soft skills in the cover letter and even the resume. So in Week 3 of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss a number of strategies for integrating soft skills into resumes and cover letters.

In the second week of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about integrating soft skills into cover letters and resumes.

Most employers continue to focus on technical skills, which are critical in their hiring decisions. But applicants who look for matches and exploit those matches can position themselves ahead of other candidates and show employers why they are perfect for a position.

Among the topics they discuss in this episode are:

Why job searches usually mean short staffing when they need to make the right choice when short-staffed

How to make an employer see how you fit into an organization

Understanding a company and how to be a perfect match

Storytelling and being “sticky” in the process

The categorization effect on hiring

How to cut through the stack of resumes

Why employers are looking to eliminate applicants

The difference between job qualifiers and job winners

A practical application of what we are discussing with an actual job posting
How storytelling is key to getting interviews, especially if you are age 40 and above

Next Week

Week 3 of Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy will explore how to integrate soft skills into cover letters and resumes to improve your chances of getting a job interview.